


Reckless at Sea

by Inky_Pens



Category: Shadow and Bone (TV), The Grisha Trilogy - Leigh Bardugo
Genre: Alternate Ending, Boats and Ships, F/M, Kitchen Sex, M/M, Monsterfucking, Oral Sex, Plot What Plot/Porn Without Plot, Post-Book 3: Ruin and Rising, Threesome - F/M/M, mal who, not here for a long time just a good time, the one where they fuck a monster
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-08
Updated: 2021-02-08
Packaged: 2021-03-13 12:22:19
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,741
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29278401
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Inky_Pens/pseuds/Inky_Pens
Summary: Come sail your ships around meAnd burn your bridges downWe make a little history, babyEvery time you come aroundNick Cave
Relationships: The Darkling | Aleksander Morozova & Alina Starkov, The Darkling | Aleksander Morozova/Alina Starkov, The Darkling | Aleksander Morozova/Nikolai Lantsov, The Darkling | Aleksander Morozova/Nikolai Lantsov/Alina Starkov
Comments: 5
Kudos: 86





	Reckless at Sea

There was a madness to the sea that she succumbed to the instant the ship departed the shores of Ravka. It was that very madness that made her bold and reckless, unlike herself on dry land, where every decision was weighed in unfathomable numbers of casualties and sacrifices. 

Nikolai couldn’t be any different. As the commander of this ship, he was never more calm or grounded. His intensity hung like a dense saltwater fog, and on the days that Alina breathed it in, she felt suffocated by the secret between them--that beneath the mask of the _Korol Rezni_ was the monster who waited for an opportunity to dismantle the peace that Alina and Nikolai had precariously maintained in the aftermath on the Fold. 

It had been less than a year, and perhaps it was because the Darkling was too busy trying to build a regime in the middle of a civil war, but they had managed to escape his attention and regroup on the open waters, transporting defected Grisha to Ketterdam, picking up food and supplies, without once encountering the Darkling’s army.

It was almost too lucky. But when the Darkling visited her at night through the power of their bond, strengthened over the course of three amplifiers, he didn’t seem impatient for what he called her inevitable return. 

“I was young once, too, Alina,” he’d told her. “I know the desire to be on your own, to be free. I have waited many lifetimes for you. I can wait a few more.” And then she got herself off in front of him, held his hungry gaze while she played with her clit and let him call her names amounting to insults on anyone else, in any other context. 

She was reckless on the sea.

\---

Alina had taken to having most meals in her quarters. She didn’t like the forced socialization and false smiles. She also didn’t like answering questions that asked her what next. She wanted to tell them that it wasn’t her throne, wasn’t her problem, but that’s not what saints were supposed to say. So instead, Genya dropped off leftovers from breakfast while Alina burned tiny holes in the walls by concentrating beams of light to their finest points. The concentration was as difficult as shearing off a mountain top, and the next time she saw the Darkling, she was going to use this new skill to singe his eyebrows off.

Today, it was Nikolai who brought her an assortment of breads, little pots of jam they had picked up from Ketterdam in the last trip, and boiled eggs. 

He shuffled around her room awkwardly, clearly debating how to break news to her that she suspected would not be good. When he started making small talk about the color of her duvet, she was one who broke the stalemate. 

“Spit it out, Nikolai.”

“We need to go to Os Kervo. There are Ravkans needing passage and not enough boats to carry them.”

“Not enough boats willing to do it for free, you mean.”

He knew it was a rhetorical statement and thus didn’t bother arguing. “Zoya thinks we’ll get there tomorrow afternoon. We’ll need you on deck. And--you should know--our favorite usurper slash mass murderer is expected to make an appearance. ”

That caught her waning attention. “Then why are we going?”

Nikolai rolled his eyes. “Not a very saint-like response, you know.”

“Nikolai, we’ve survived a year flitting between two countries like carrier pigeons. Do you really think he’s going to let us carry on like this indefinitely? We shouldn’t go out of our way to antagonize him.”

“We aren’t captive in the Grand Palace, you in his bed, me in chains. I think that antagonizes him enough.” He made his way back to her door, leaving the finality of his decision suspended like a guillotine. If Alina wanted, she could exercise her power over him, over the Grisha. They liked the charismatic Nikolai for his lofty ideas and unfounded optimism, but they followed him because the Sun Summoner was the only being who could match him for power.

He spoke his next words carefully, as though the measure of the breaths between them could “Can you control yourself around him?”

She didn’t spare him nearly as many breaths when she answered. “He is as much your master as he is my maker, Nikolai. Can you?”

\---

They’d dropped anchor a hundred miles off the coast of Ravka to give Zoya a much-needed recharge that night. Alina spent the better part of the day going over strategies with the Triumvirate and Nikolai, accounting for all the best and worst case scenarios that could play out until Alina was exhausted of hearing what amounted to all the ways she could be captured. She turned in earlier than the rest, which was how she came to be in the galley at 2 in the morning, preparing tea in resignation that she would not be getting back to sleep. 

She was on her second cup when Nikolai soundlessly joined her, swiping her teapot and pouring a cup for himself. She’d left the kitchen dark, dimly lit only by a warm glowing orb hovering above the small table, but it was enough to catch his anticipated cringe against the bitterness; once a royal, always a royal, because his refined palate would never get used to the way the First Army left their tea bags steeping in the pot, topping off with hot water until the pot ran clear to make the most of rations.

Both of them sat waiting for the other to make the first move, unsure of who it would be tonight or who started it the last time. He got up to search for sugar or maybe honey, and she could have told him they had none of that left, but the sounds she wanted to hear were not discussions of who used the last of the sweeteners. That realization was what propelled her to her feet, slipping her body between his and the cold metal of the kitchen counter. He might deny her, citing the public space or the long day ahead of them, but he hadn’t before. It was the spark she clung to when she tilted her chin up and parted her lips, a gesture of need that spoke of the unspoken vulnerability they shared. 

This wasn’t love, not even comfort. This was working out their failures and frustrations on each other’s bodies, the push-pull of sexual tension to shut their brains off long enough for a release. 

His lips found hers easily--not quite a magnetic pull, but an ease borne of familiarity. The kiss was soft and gentle; he brushed her lips against hers, held her face in his hands while he coaxed her mouth open with teasing flicks of his tongue. But it reminded her too much of the lovemaking with Mal before the final battle of the fold, a goodbye, and she retaliated against the memory by pushing back for an angrier, greedier kiss that Nikolai was reluctant to give.

“I want _him_ ,” she demanded-- _commanded_ , really. 

Nikolai grit his teeth and took a step back. Anger flashed in his eyes. Resentment, too.

She held out her hand, palm up, and allowed it to backlight the wisp of shadows that had never left her. “I want him,” she repeated, and it was a warning. A threat they both knew she wouldn’t act on if pressed, but Nikolai had never pushed to be sure.

The growl he responded with was part man, part monster as he gave way to the nichevo’ya in him. His veins darkened like tendrils of smoke infecting his body, seeping black ink stains that drenches his irises into voids that conveyed a different kind of hunger. His fingers stretched into claws and his teeth sharpened dangerously lest there be any mistaking his lethality. The first time they had done this, he had nearly ripped her throat out until he learned how to use this demon mouth. His transformation was nearly complete by the time the wings grew from his back with a scratch of the fabric of his shirt tearing to accommodate. The end man standing in front of her, taller and sinister, was not a man at all. 

The monster Nikolai lifted Alina onto the counter roughly, almost too loudly, and stepped into the space between her legs. He grabbed her hair and pulled it back, exposing her delicate neck so he could trace down the taut skin with a firm tongue. It was as close to feeding on her as he could get, tasting her skin and sucking over as many pulse points as he could find on her body.

Sometimes he would just do this: lick and suckle over the exposed skin of her body, pulling at the fabric that was a confusing barrier for the monster until she divested herself of the clothing that vexed him. She wrapped her legs around his waist and pulled him closer, hoping he would do more than tasting every inch of her tonight.

The light she left above the table flickered infinitesimally, but it was a shift she felt in her body every time the Darkling tugged on their bond before appearing in the room.

She froze, caught between defiance and humiliation as the Darkling came closer into view. The raise of his brows was the only hint of his surprise, but the smirk on his lips told her he had no intentions of stopping this. In fact, the monster recognized the Darkling’s presence, too, and paused his ministrations only to turn in its master’s direction, waiting for instruction. 

“Playing with my pets, Alina?” the Darkling murmured. “Come here, _sobachka_.”

Alina gripped the monster’s arm before he complied, regaining his full attention. “Nikolai, if you do not want to do this…I’ll bring you back. We can end this here.”

The Nikolai she knew and the monster overtaking him stared into her eyes while the decision played out between them. A brow rose on his inhuman face, the only sign of Nikolai she could see pushing through. It was a question. 

But Alina didn’t have to think about her answer. She bit her lip to keep her voice tempered, even. “Yes,” she whispered, even though the Darkling would hear it. Yes, she wanted this. _Needed_ this.

The monster was in front of the Darkling in a blink--a movement faster than her brain could comprehend. For a second, Alina panicked, belatedly worried that maybe the Darkling was going to use the nichevo’ya to kill her, or maybe he would dispose of Nikolai entirely. Her brain caught up in time to open her mouth when the Darkling placed a finger under the monster’s chin to lift his head. He caught Alina’s expression behind and the smirk grew. 

“Don’t worry, solnishka. It’ll be your turn soon.”

The Darkling threaded his fingers in Nikolai’s hair the same way Alina often did when she was about to kiss him. The Darkling pulled her monster, their monster, forward, taking his mouth against his own in a kiss so volatile, so hungry that Alina could feel the ache of it building in her low belly. 

“Take my cock in your hand,” the Darkling murmured against Nikolai’s lips. 

The monster Nikolai slipped his hand down the front of the Darkling’s kefta, dipping into the hem and taking no time to tease. Maybe the monster did not understand the concept in the same way humans did. The Darkling hissed when Nikolai wrapped his hand around his cock, and though Alina could just barely make out the movements, she knew enough to see Nikolai was stroking the Darkling, pumping him in quick, short pulls that made the Darkling do an approximation of a moan. He gripped the monster’s head again and directed him to his mouth, and the sounds formed a concert of straccoted grunts to Alina’s melodic whimpering.

“Aleksander,” she whined, a name she only used in his presence like this. She didn’t mind watching, relished it actually, but her fingers could only give her so much relief. They were already coated in her juices from the fingering she was currently employing to take the edge off. It was nowhere near enough.

“Get on the table, Alina,”

She hopped off the counter on shaky legs reminiscent of her first few days on the ship and climbed onto the table, first on all fours before settling herself down to roll onto her back. The table was cold and gave her a shiver that resonated from head to toes. Her nipples puckered in response pulling against the thin fabric of her nightgown that was taught around her breasts. 

“I think I rather like you on your hands and knees,” the Darkling told her as he pulled himself front he monster’s grip and took a seat in the chair that aligned him with the sight of her open legs. “But there’s time for that. Spread your legs wider.”

Alina drew her feet up, heels almost resting against the back of her thighs, and bent her knees, letting them fall open to expose herself fully and completely to the man who was about to devour her. 

“Sobachka,” he called. “Under the table. Mouth on me.”

Nikolai growled, feet planted and unmoving in protest. 

The Darkling merely chuckled. “You can fuck her when I’ve had my fill of her.” His eyes glittered as he looked at Alina. “And then you will have your fill of me,” he promised.

Her mouth salivated in anticipation. Nikolai was convinced, too. He disappeared beneath the table, and from the wet sounds a moment later, he got right to work. Bliss passed along the Darkling’s features for a moment, and a hand disappeared beneath the table, followed by a gagging sound. 

The Darkling wrapped his hands around her ankles and pulled Alina forward with a rough jerk; the table creaked beneath the movement. 

“You’ll need to be quiet, love.” 

Alina almost rolled her eyes. She was not an amateur at this but thought now wasn’t the right time to tell him that. Instead, she nodded in understanding, wholly unprepared for the way his mouth latched onto her, a man starved for her taste. She yelped at the onslaught of his tongue inside of her, swirling circles against her entrance as his nose bumped against her clit. She could feel quick pants of hot air against her skin--he was laughing, his face buried between her legs and he was laughing at how easily he could pull sounds from her mouth despite her arrogance otherwise.

He broke for air, and Alina watched in fascination over the swell of her breasts while the Darkling shuddered under Nikolai’s ministrations. The noises below her were lewd, but she wouldn’t be surprised if she was dripping wet because of it. Aleksander was enraptured.

“Fuck. Yes, just like that, little prince.”

Alina squirmed on the table and lifted her hips to regain his attention. 

He circled his thumb over clit while peppering kisses and nibbles on her thighs. “You smell divine, Alina. Does the boy ever tell you that?”

Alina keened under the praise.

“Does he tell you how sweet you taste? I could never forget it. Not in a thousand lifetimes. It’s addictive. You’re so hot against my mouth. Your pretty,” his lips smacked against her clit, “little cunt.”

His face shook against her, back and forth as he coated himself with the taste he loved so much. Tiny explosions of light behind her closed eyelids as he brought her to the brink, lips wrapped around her clit and one arm over her waist to hold her down, the other hand curling his fingers inside of her to tickle spots that made his arm work harder. She had to clasp her own hands over her mouth to muffle the moans that were turning into a fever pitched scream.

When she collapsed boneless, sweating on the table, the Darkling moved his hand off her and made no move to wipe her juices off his mouth. Nikolai was pulled off of the Darkling’s cock with a _pop_ , a decision that seemed to almost pain the Darkling from the look on his face, but now it was the monster's turn to collect a reward for his obedience. 

Alina did not wait for the instruction. She turned over onto her hands and knees, ass high in the air waiting for the monster’s cock to fill her. The Darkling walked around to the other end of the table and took Alina’s chin in his hand, parted her lips with his thumb. The pad of it scraped along her bottom teeth. Her eyes met his, but he was looking ahead, looking at Nikolai. The monster Nikolai, who used his cock to tease her slick folds, slapping against her swollen clit with fervor. The other, with an impressively-cut head, bobbed in front of her face, a beautiful shade of purple in the low light. The Darkling rested it against her bottom lip but held her throat to keep her from sinking onto it. His grip tightened deliciously; she felt delirious from the buzzing her body was doing with two men, two monsters in their own ways, on either side of her waiting to give her everything.

He gave a signal, a short nod that the monster understood, and at the same time the Darkling thrust his still-wet cock into her mouth while Nikolai pushed into her. The stretch, the fill of them inside of her, made her arms shake. The Darkling held one hand to the back of her head, other just under her chin, both a pleasant weight to steady her as he hit the back of her throat again and again. Tears leaked from her eyes, saliva from the corners of her mouth in his ruthless pursuit of climax. A selfish part of her wanted him to slow, wanted to luxuriate in the thick, velvet feel of his cock under her tongue, and the slow, intense release she could bring for him. 

But that was not on the menu tonight. Not while the monster was ramming into her so hard she thought she might break in two. He was bigger than Nikolai the man, almost painfully bigger, but she took him without complaint under the Darkling’s praises as his good girl. 

“She’s tight, isn’t she?” the Darkling asked Nikolai, watching him pound into her while he fucked her mouth. “She’s always so tight and so ready.”

Nikolai’s hands dug into her hips, a bruising if not bloody grip--she thought a few claws may have punctured the skin--but she pushed her hips back into him willingly, giving as much as he was taking. More. Always more.

The Darkling came first with a groan slipping through his clenched teeth, coating inside her mouth with ropes of come greedily swallowed. He stroked her cheeks gently, reverently, before pulling out of her and allowing her to drop to her elbows, no longer able to hold herself up.

Pleasure was intoxicating, pushing her higher and higher into a brainspace she rarely occupied and desperately needed. She didn’t notice the Darkling walking around the table to Nikolai until she felt the slap of his hand on one cheek, then another, the sting against her firm, supple backside compounding the ache and build threatening to overtake her. The unyielding rhythm the monster hadn’t broken began to stutter, a sign that he was very near to unloading his spend inside of her.

Alina whimpered, unable to ask for what she wanted, too incoherent to think about anything other than the waves that she was distantly waiting to hit her. But the Darkling heard it, and he knew. Nikolai pulled her up, back flush against his chest as he snapped his hips up into her and held her stead around her waist. Alina gripped the black-veined forearms and sought out the Darkling’s mouth to tell him what she needed, but he already had her. His fingers skated over her hands, over the monster’s forearms, down her belly and found her clit. The circles he rubbed were in sync with the tongue he plundered in her mouth and then another hot mouth joined theirs, and there was a tangle of tongues and teeth grazing one another’s lips, breathing each other in, swallowing moans that were no longer distinguishable. 

Alina came first and third, followed by the monster whose grip held him to her until he had filled her more than she could keep inside. She was leaking onto the table where it wasn’t so long ago they had just taken tea. Her cunt fluttered around him, enjoying the twitches he gave as she squeezed every drop of come from him. 

Her knees were sore and red, possibly bruised, definitely unsteady on her feet as Nikolai returned to form, huffing breaths against the back of her neck and loosening his hold on her. He carefully pulled her off the table and set her on her feet against him. His claws retracted, his arms no longer stained with merzost, and the flash of blonde she caught in the corner of her eye as he rested his forehead on her shoulder gave her a deep sense of relief. It was never guaranteed how long the monster would stay.

Alina looked up to find the Darkling staring at them, or rather, Aleksander staring at her. It wasn’t a trick of shadows and light that made her see the flicker of jealousy in his eyes while Nikolai held her, but she wanted to tell him that it meant nothing. That Nikolai was not so much a lover as...she didn’t know what. A companion, perhaps. Two people sharing impossible circumstances and needing relief. She wanted to tell him that he needn’t worry about Alina falling for the prince, even if it would have been better for her. She wanted to tell him that he still had her most nights through the force of their bond, the connection that kept them rooted to each other. She wanted to smooth the wrinkle between his brow, brush her fingers over the downturn of his lips, and kiss his forehead the way he kissed her. She wanted to tell him every day she was closer to that inevitable return he promised.

There was a madness to the sea that made her reckless.


End file.
